This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more -
everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Memoir in Books.

Part 2: Chapters 15 - 20 Summary

Faculty began to be put on trial and expelled if they were suspected of any counter-revolutionary tendencies. The department head, a "Dr. A," came forward and informed the court of the compassionate side of one of the accused. This was a dangerous intervention in the early days of the revolution when all was seen in black and white. Years later, one of Dr. A's former students wrote that such an action could only have come from someone who is "engrossed in literature," and who has thereby "learned that every individual has different dimensions to his personality...it is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else's shoes and understand the other's different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless." Later, Dr. A is put on trial by the students for being "too western" and...